


Stars On Your Cheeks

by jamesilver



Series: Spirk Ficlet Requests [4]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Insecurity, M/M, Makeup, Spock has freckles, but have fun ig, can be read as aos or tos im p sure but was written more aos just for clarification, ficlet requests, its literally just 1200 words of fluff, like literally this whole thing is just so much fluff, reference to childhood bullying, umm honestly i don't know what else to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:46:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24217603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamesilver/pseuds/jamesilver
Summary: REQUEST: for your spirk ficlets, could you write about spock with freckles? thanks xx
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Series: Spirk Ficlet Requests [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742905
Comments: 8
Kudos: 123





	Stars On Your Cheeks

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of a series of fics that I have done as requests. Check out the series for more! This fic was requested by elliotlikestocry on tumblr.

Jim woke up slowly, squeezing his eyes together and inhaling sharply. Since his alarm hadn't gone off yet, he was unsure what time it was but only knew that he didn't quite need to be up yet so he burrowed himself into his pillow. 

Minutes later, he opened his eyes fully, heaving out a sigh. It was clear that he wasn't getting back to sleep. 

Sitting up, Jim leaned over and looked at the time. He rubbed a hand across his face, smearing away the sleep. It was far too early for him to be up. 

After lying in bed for a few minutes, he figured he could at least use this time to actually do something, like maybe filling out some reports that he was supposed to be doing. (Spock always did them when Jim didn't, but that just made him feel bad. Maybe he could surprise Spock this time.) 

Groaning, Jim rolled out of bed, barely sitting up and standing in time out of sheer laziness. He couldn't remember the last time he was up this early, but he was committed to doing something nice for Spock. It was really only fair, what with all the nice things his first officer did for him. 

And this had nothing to do with the fact that Jim might be a little bit in love with him. Nothing at all. 

Running a hand across his face, Jim walked into the bathroom that joined his and Spock's room and stopped short just as Spock was entering from the other side. 

He knew immediately he had never seen Spock this early in the morning. Because, this...he would have remembered this. 

Spock had freckles. 

There were just a few across his cheeks, just a little beneath his eyes, and they made him look so young and vulnerable and Jim's brain stopped working. He would never be able to forget the sight. 

"My apologies, Captain," Spock said, taking a step back into his room. "You are not usually awake so early."

But Jim couldn't respond because his brain was  _ broken _ . It was just...it was just literally so cute. He truly had no other word for it. 

Of course, Jim had seen the makeup that Spock kept in the bathroom cabinet and he had always wondered why Spock had it and why he used it (and where he picked it up from. Who taught him how to use makeup? Did he teach himself?) But now it all made sense. He was trying to cover up his freckles because they made him look so young and Jim couldn't even react right now beyond being absolutely frozen because this....

He was going to lose his mind!

Spock shut the door. 

Throughout the rest of the day, Jim was a little...off. No one really seemed to notice. Bones, of course, threw him a questioning look, but apparently Jim was doing well enough at concealing it because he was able to just brush it off and, well, if that was good enough for the grumpy doctor. 

Spock, however, was also acting weird. Or, at least Jim thought. Considering they were two years into this five year mission, Jim thought he knew his First Officer fairly well by now. And while to an outsider it might look as though Spock was just being his usual, stoic Vulcan self, Jim knew better. Because Spock was avoiding eye contact with him.

After their shift ended, Jim caught up with Spock. "Hey," he said as the two of them found themselves alone in the turbo lift. "Do you want to play some chess tonight?" 

He asked it casual, but he saw a bit of a blush rising to the tips of Spock's ears. 

_ So he really was that embarrassed _ , Jim thought. 

"Captain--" 

"We can go over paperwork," Jim offered, sensing Spock was trying to get out of it. "Or we can just hang out."

"Captain--"

"We should probably go over that report from last week cause I still haven't submitted it. Unless you did without me knowing." 

"Captain--"

"Or we could--"

" _ Jim _ .”

The turbo lift opened and Jim tried not to scowl, not looking at Spock. 

"Okay, fine," Jim said. "Don't hang out with me. That's totally okay. But I'm just saying..." He stepped out of the turbo lift and started walking to his door. "You don't have to get all weird about this morning." 

Spock followed him off the turbo lift, likely heading to his own door. 

"Jim," he tried again and Jim stopped, turning to look at him a little exasperated. "I would...prefer if you would not mention what you saw this morning." 

At this, Jim shook his head. Covering it up with makeup was one thing, but being all secretive about it? What was the big deal? They were in space, they interacted with new species on a daily basis, there were multiple species of humanoid and non-humanoid beings on their ship! And Spock was worried about the ultra common  _ freckles _ ?

Still shaking his head and lost in thought, Jim walked into his room. 

Spock followed, still waiting for an answer. 

"Okay, so what, Spock? You have freckles. It's not a big deal. They're cute! They're completely normal and common in humans." Jim's brain started to scramble over the fact that he used the word cute, but he tried to ignore it. 

Spock went a little quiet and Jim sensed something really was wrong. He couldn't figure out why, but Spock was truly sensitive about this. 

"I'm sorry, Spock, I--" Feeling guilty and forgetting for half a second, Jim reached out and touched his hand to Spock's before jerking and quickly withdrawing it. 

He turned half away, starting to talk again. "Well, shit, now I'm even more sorry," he laughed nervously. "I really didn't mean to, uh, Spock, I..." 

Jim was still at a loss for what to say when Spock touched two fingers to Jim's own from behind him. In surprise, Jim turned back around. 

"Spock, I have feelings for you," he blurted out. 

And Jim might have been a little delusional at that moment, but he was sure he saw a shadow of a smile. "Jim, I know." 

Jim's voice got quieter, almost to a whisper. "And your freckles are really fucking cute. I don't know why you don't like them or anything and I won't say anything to anyone, but Spock, they are seriously adorable and I haven't been able to think about anything else all day."

And there was that smile again. 

It took a year of them dating for Spock to confess to Jim why he had covered up his freckles for years. He had stopped around Jim in that time--it was a silent agreement that Spock would take off his makeup as long as Jim wouldn't say anything. But one night, as they lay in bed just before sleeping, Jim swept his fingers across Spock's cheeks. 

In his sleepy state, he sighed, "They're like stars. Your body always knew you belonged in space, coming to find me." 

Spock caught his hand. "Ashayam," he began. 

"Why do you hate them?" Jim asked, pure curiosity pushing him to do it.

Spock looked down at their hands as he spoke. "I've had them since I was a child. Vulcans...do not have freckles. They are strictly a human trait. When I was bullied as a child, it was one of the things that would always get mentioned. I became illogically sensitive about them." 

When Spock had stopped talking, Jim cuddled him close. "Fuck logic," he said. "And fuck those kids." 

Against his chest, Jim felt Spock laugh. And that was enough for him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! Please feel free to leave a comment and/ or message me on [ tumblr ](https://www.spirkbaby.tumblr.com)
> 
> I am also currently taking ficlet requests (like this one) on [ tumblr ](https://www.spirkbaby.tumblr.com)


End file.
